Read BD's Comment

My friend BD has made a very nice comment on "The Grass is always Greener". It pisses me off that he's a better writer than I am. After all, it's my blog. And he's exactly right about airplanes. They are not compromises. They are what they are. I think when we go to buy an airplane, we may have to make compromises. And BD is correct that there is a best all around fun airplane, and that is the cub. He doesn't mention what kind of cub though. BD has a big biplane. He's been smiling a lot the last few times I've seen him. Is it the Stearman? Is it the great girlfriend who came along about the same time as the airplane? Or is it that his son just got married and began Med School? I'm happy for you BD. I would praise your flying of Jumbo Jets across oceans, but I have an unwritten rule that my blog doesn't talk about airline flying. Except in reference to Gen. Aviation. If we want to read airline flying stories, all we need to read is AOPA Pilot, or "Flying" and they have it covered. All their writers are big- shot airline pilots. Speaking of big-shot airline pilots, there are a lot of asshole pricks in the airlines. There are also a lot of great guys who love flying and BD is one of them.

Hanna banana

Hanna is supposed to come thru our area tomorrow It made landfall in Carolina today. I went up to my buddy's place by Dover to help move planes around and get ready for the storm. My Pa28 is up there and Dan will see that it has a place in a hangar It's waiting on parts and it can't be flown, so it needs to be secured. I don't know how we did it, but we got two planes crammed into one single- plane hangar. Then we had lunch and went to another airport. Smyrna, De. Then we took the wings and tail off one of his sailplanes and stashed them. Then we repositioned his 126 Sailplane to another field about twenty miles away. There were two of us helping Dan. The other guy was this airline pilot "Jeff". He has an incredible sailplane called a "DG" or something. It is a self launcher and looks like the gliders they race in. Super performance and big six figure dollars. Single seat-- 50 or 60 to 1 glide ratio. So I just assumed that Jeff would fly the 126 down to it's new location. Towed by Dan. But then I heard Dan telling Jeff about how he could start on taking apart the two seater while we were gone, and it dawned on me that maybe I was going to fly the 126. Which would be very cool! So I had a conversation with Dan. "So Lloyd, you ready to fly the 126 to Sandtown"? "Yes, but I've never flown a glider in this much wind before." "Yea, it's windy". "Uh, also, I've never flown low tow except in training years ago." "Yea well, it's only 20 miles, you can fly high tow if you want". As we were about to launch Jeff reminded me that I had a ball cap on and it might get rough enough for me to hit my head on the canopy. Ball caps have these buttons on the top which really hurt if you hit your head. I took the cap off. We took off and I was pretty rusty and it was pretty damned exciting for the first seven hundred feet. I got my head slammed twice against the canopy. But my GA friends--- I was smiling and yelling and having a great time. We leveled off at 2500 feet and it was a fine ride. I released over Sandtown and caught a little thermal but couldn't ride it long because it would drift me back too fast, So I settled for what I could get and flew upwind in some "zero sink". And I did't want to keep Dan waiting too long. We still had work to do. I tried to plan my landing roll up to the spot where the hangar was. My landing was fine, but the wind was so strong I came up about 500 ft. short of where he and his buddy were standing. We put the little 126B in their beautiful hangar. And we flew back to Smyrna. Tied down some more stuff. I thanked Jeff for saving me on that ball cap thing because I did hit the canopy. Then we flew back to Dan's. Then I jumped in the M-10 and flew back to home. It was getting dark. And solid overcast, and foggy and rainshowers were popping up. I was hot and I opened the canopy and flew in the light rain and dusk on the outskirts of a tropical storm. It felt great. Wife watched me land and she helped me put the professor's plane and then the M-10 in the hangar. Now I am going to watch Hanna on the computer and TV and see what she will do to us tomorrow. I suspect very little. But what about Ike? GA Informal.

Always Greener Part II

One of my readers, William has made a comment on my last post. He and his twin brother and their older brother are the absolute coolest people in the world. They are former Army Rangers and Navy Seals. One is a Navy Carrier pilot. I want to thank these honest brave warriors for their service to our country. I am so proud that they generously call me their "uncle". I must write some posts about these guys. Their father is featured in a post called " the day I soloed James". Their father is with us in spirit only. Their father is my best friend. Thanks you guys. Congrats again Jimmy. (he got his MBA). George, see you when the cruise is over. (fighter pilot). William, our commenter, be careful and thanks for guarding us. (classified). Now as to William's comment. First of all, it's my blog, and I'm always right. But the man does make a valid point. Yes. I stand corrected. There is an exception to my "no place is perfect" rule. San Diego is the perfect place to live on planet earth. GA Informal

The Grass is Always Greener

Happy Labor Day readers. There will be a lot of charcoal briquettes burned today. I intend to burn some. It's so nice out today, I don't want to even try to describe it. Each late- summer day seems better than the last. It can't be nice everywhere though. Because of Gustaf and Hanna and the next that starts with "I". "I" of the storm. But here, my God it's good. Sometimes around Groundhog Day I get really sick of the clouds and short days and the cold. I start to imagine where I could move to a simpler life, a little more south maybe. Or the mountains. Wife and I like mountains. Or the seashore. A brownstone flat in Manhattan. Or on the water by a lake or river. Or on a private runway somebody else owns and mows. Or into the hills of West Virginia and build a cabin off the grid. Why do we always look at what we think we want or could have if only we had enough money, or time, or we weren't obligated to do such and so. Oh, the best climate in the world is at so and so. Wouldn't it be neat to live at the beach? We can understand why rich folk have so many houses. This proves the theory that there is no perfect place to live. They've got enough money to buy any place they want, but it doesn't suit them all the time, so they get about five or eight places. That travel from house to house would not suit me, and it's no fantasy of mine. I'm a homebody and I'm done with traveling. Every house is going to be a compromise. Just like any airplane is a compromise. The better a house or airplane is at pleasing you for what it is, the worse it is for doing everything else. Am I making sense? Help me out BD-- our Stearman owner. I walk around my house and grounds and my little tillable acres and everywhere I look there is work to be done and repairs to be made and overdue upgrades which I have no money for. Now ironically I have time for such work, but I don't really feel like doing it. In light of the beautiful weather lately, I've been taking stock of what I have as opposed to what I want, or need, or think I need. Right here, right now, I have all I want and need and more. There is a spiritual aspect to all this. And I'm not very spiritual. And I hate the stupid idea of turning all of one's problems over to God, or Jesus, or whoever your imaginary diety is--and then telling me that I have to do that too in order to fit into your sick guilty world. I try not to turn my troubles over. I try to solve them. And I'm not saying I have squat figured out. I hate it when people say they know whats gonna happen when they die! They simply don't. This is the world. The planet. The creatures. The universe which we havn't as yet been able to understand. Why claim to have a handle on it? You don't. Your letting your imagination and your fears guide you. And you want very much for me to think that way! Sorry, sometimes I rant about believers. Back to my point, the spiritual aspect of getting what you want. The Taoist or the Zen say it better than me, and I can't remember how they say it, but it's something like, "Happiness, balance, and peace come not from seeking and finding and getting what you want. Happiness comes from the elimination of desire of things in the future and the appreciation of things in the present. It sounds too simple. I'm not putting it right. When I make that same walk around my house today, instead of seeing things that need doing in the future, all I see is things to enjoy right now. I'd like to make my whole life more like that. If I could talk to a diety, such as the God of Abraham, who is the God of the Muslims, Christians and Jews, I would say: hey God, I know you're busy busy destroying lives in the Gulf of Mexico, and lots of innocent gentle children are starving and dying of cancer and other diseases, and you're doing nothing to help them, but how 'bout putting some of that rain from Fay, and Gustaf onto my farm and airstrip.. My soybeans are dying your Lordship. Too negative? Of all the places in the U.S. I could live, balancing all factors one against the other, I don't think I can beat the Delmarva Peninsula. Talk to me on Groundhog Day. Now I must wander out and put my tractor away and watch the prettiest sunset ever. The days keep getting shorter and let's enjoy ourselves, after all, we're all busy dying. Gen. Av. Informal.

The Thiel

There are two "Rogers" in my life. Not counting the "Roger" I use as a radio phrase. Old timers use "Roger and Wilco and Over". Oh, I used to be able to talk CB pretty good. "Breaker 19 this here's the wing man, You got your ears and a copy on me good buddy, comeback"? Before the big CB craze, when I was in high school, I actually had my own base unit CB with a licensed call sign. I was KOI 2342. We didn't use handles and lingo. We went by the book with our "ten signals". Before there were personal computers we had our own "net" of radios for emergency services in case the phones went down. I was a disc jockey at the college station, and a Restricted Radio Telephone Op Permit wasn't enough. I had to go to downtown D.C. to the FCC building and take a test to get my Third Class Radio Operators Permit. A so called "Third Phone". I could send and receive Morse code, and owned two surplus telegraph keys. So if you ever hear me bullshit non- standard crap on the radio, it isn't because I don't know better. Roger that. My wife's father is a Roger. He's a great guy. The other Roger is Roger Thiel. Known as "Thiel" or "The Thiel". He is more than an aviation enthusiast. More than a buff. Airplane "Fan" is a good word because.. You know what "fan" means? It's short for "fanatic". Yea Thiel is an airplane fanatic. He's a pretty knowledgeable historian as well. He's an actor, a singer, a pilot, a sailor. A printer. An announcer. He lives on a house boat in D.C. He owns two planes. That's what I want to talk about. First plane is a J-5. A J-5 is perhaps the best cub of all. It has all the appeal of a J-3, but it's better. Can carry a third person! It's the first of the "Cruiser" series of cubs and the purest. So if you like pure long wing Pipers, the J-5 can't be beat. The other airplane he owns is a Ryan. Yea Ryan. The company that made Lindburg's plane. Roger's plane is a Ryan S model. Called a CW. He could tell us all about it and he will if we give him the slightest chance. There are about 4 or 5 of these planes around today. Thiel gives a nice talk every year at Oshkosh and Lakeland about civilian sub patrol during WWII and how the home guard in little airplanes protected our shores. The Ryan SCW was one of the planes they used. If you're ever at an airshow, wings and wheels, or fly-in and over the PA a rich barritone voice singing the Star Spangled Banner greats you and then the voice describes aircraft and cars in a way that ties in society and public mentality of the period with those contraptions, you've been listening to my friend "The Thiel". GA Informal.